Review: Luke Wholey’s Wild Alaskan Grille

Click Pic for link. SWB has spent years in The Strip, especially liking Wholey’s seafood.  So when Luke decided to open his own seafood spot, we figured it would be hot.

Placed in the old Area 51 spot across from Reyna foods, the space is simple, slightly rustic yet elegant, and very, very, very tasty.  We are convinced that no one does seafood like Luke.

When we went, we treated ourselves to the grilled swordfish. Personally, I have never experienced swordfish as well prepared and moist as I had at Luke’s. The service by all staff (including Luke himself) was excellent. The drinks were heaven. The atmosphere overall with the food quality made a very long day end quite nicely due to Luke’s Grille.

We highly recommend you visit and support this sure to be future Pittsburgh mainstay.

-SWB

Marty’s Market – new site at an old friend’s house

Marty’s Market – 23rd and Smallman

…. if you recognize the address, it used to be the Right By Nature market, which just didn’t make it. We were fans of that store in the beginning, but near the end it just wasn’t the same.

Marty’s seems to be playing a better game … so keep tuned as it grows, as SWB feels you may be pleasantly surprised.  And, yes …. there is a Marty.

Marty’s was conceived as a business in the businesses of helping change the local food system, and having “food made of food”.  Sound familiar.  Not really, right?  Most of the food businesses are in the business of bottom line only …. not caring whether you eat, nor whether you can still fit though the door of your house.  The people at Marty’s actually care, and that shows in how the business is evolving.

To those those who like the mainstream stuff, we apologize, as we are elated that at no time will you ever see Marty’s contracting out the cafe’ to McDip’s.  The food at Marty’s will actually be good for you.

As we said, we shopped at and liked Right By Nature in the beginning, but as they compromised their beliefs, things became confusing, and as a result they eventually went away.

We don’t feel that Marty’s will at any point, go away. SWB sees a much better business model in place.  Things like starting small, and not opening with a huge bang allow the folks at Marty’s to really tweak things to what customers want.  With trained staff on food systems you get at least a few highly knowledgeable staff on site to answer questions.  With an excellent chef, there are no compromises on cafe’ food. With perfectly chosen coffee, your morning brew from Marty’s coffee bar will put a smile on your face on even the worst day.

We like what we see and will give you updates at this new site evolves.

Link: Marty’s Market

-SWB

Karyon Nightly

Hello SWB readers, I’d like to introduce myself.  My name is Karyon Nightly, one of the writers for the website http://www.sophisticatedpittsburgh.com.  Since we are taking control of SWB, I wanted to let you in on what we are planning on doing to move the site into something that can accompany S.P. as a blog.  SWB has a strong sarcastic and cynical side to it as most of the rant blogs did that started out around the mid 2000’s.  SWB will be that part of S.P. for those little sarcastic articles that we want to have fun with, but may not want to publish on the main site.  Here is what we are planning so far (there are many minds at work, so this may change from time to time):

• We will be deleting any blog entries from SWB that may have too strong of an opinion, or quite frankly don’t any longer apply to issues in the city.
• We will be toning down the sarcasm and strong opinions – we are not censoring, but challenging our writers to be as effective as SWB was, but with more creativity and good writing.
• Although sarcastic, cynical, and a little ranty … we want to try to make our articles readable by all Pittsburghers and outsiders.

Keep in mind, just because we are making SWB a little nicer to fit in with Sophisticated Pittsburgh, that doesn’t mean if you deserve a slap to the face we won’t give it anymore.

We’ll still cover things like Pittsburgh politics, The Steelers, The penguins, enjoyable moments from the council, the Strip District, the wonderful roads, etc, etc.

more later ….

Thanks

-Karyon

 

Changes To SWB

Our New Owners

Yup, we being taken over.

This is for the good.  After being inactive for a while, another site has inquired about taking over Screaming Weasel.  There will be changes, it will retain some of  the sarcasm, but will lose some of the “rantiness”  and negativity that it had when it started around 2005-2006 and rant blogs were the fad – although we will gripe a little through it,  and SWB will be the occasional guest writer.

We think you’ll like it … and what it will present about Pittsburgh.

If you want to check out our new owners, Click Here

Here is their future WordPress Blog (Click Here)

Please welcome Karyon Nightly (sophisticatedpgh) as  the new main writer.

-SWB

Art All Night Walkthrough Videos

For all of those that did not make it to Art All Night (I don’t know what could be more important that going to Art All Night, but …..), we have kindly posted four videos giving you a 31 minute total tour of Art All Night 2010.

Check them out here (FYI – we did not edit out anything, so view before you share with the kiddies):

AAN Tour Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.

These are YouTube videos, so if you are at the office of have that blocked for the kiddies, correct the situation :-).

Art All Night 2010

The post icon is a little larger than normal – that’s because this is a really important time of the year.

At least in Pittsburgh and Lawrenceville.

It’s ART ALL NIGHT time!!!!!

SWB doesn’t have an entry, but Pittsburgh By Mini Cam does, so please check us out.  We have no idea where we will be placed, so that’ll force ya to look at all the other great artists at the show – last year it was over a thousand.

The other great thing is that you can to go through the old Iron City plant and maybe check out that place you’ve bought from for so long.

This show, in our opinion, is on of the best ways we have seen to showcase all of Pittsburgh’s artists freely and openly without politics or preferences.  Anyone can enter one piece of art, and anyone can view all of the art.  Every year we give major kudos to those that created and are now running the show (along with the tons of volunteers).

Along with being great for art … Art All Night IS the perfect example of how Pittsburgh works together to get something new and exciting started.  It shows that whether it’s about manufacturing or cultural activities, we are innovators in all ways.

So attend …. you may see one or your friend’s artwork there (or hopefully your own).

-SWB

PS – Art All Night continually inspires a ton of other things in our city … so SUPPORT IT!

Review: My Tale Of Two Cities

First off, I’m disappointed that I didn’t make the opening because I didn’t get to meet some of the cast, the director, and some of the folks from Mr. Roger’s. {{groan}} … don’t ya just hate being responsible enough to have other obligations? … that’s probably one of those Pittsburgher traits that keeps us from moving on.

Well, not really … but it’s one that does make people want to build a family here.  It’s a place you can make a decision that shows the importance of your family to you and still keep your job.

Let’s get to the movie: If you were looking for the whiny movie about a man that moved away and made it big in someplace like Broadway, and just realized he missed out on raising his children well in a more family oriented town like Pittsburgh because his oldest child just went through rehab for the fifth time for drug addiction … your in the wrong place – it’s not a reality show or movie.

What it is … reality. Real reality, no fakes, no acting, *REAL*.

The movie is more of a constant interview than a documentary. We are making that statement as a compliment. Whether you live here, or whether you are thinking about moving here, it makes you think. Considering that thinking is the biggest and most important prerequisite to change, this movie could well be the missing key to starting a true growth and city wide thinking renovation revolution that Pittsburgh honestly and truly needs.

The movie was created and filmed by the typical nerdy type guy most would have gladly beat up (I know … I was one too.  I grew up in Brentwood where there were two cliques for guys – the ones that could play football, and everyone else).

You may want to consider thanking this “nerdy kid” from the past for almost losing everything to make this movie, as it may be the calling card that finally kicks this city into saving itself.  Pittsburgh will not be saved by new construction, cool apartments, or attracting new business – we’ve tried that before.  The only thing that will save it is new thinking.  Carl Kurlander filmed a way to new thinking for the city.

Click Here to check out info on the movie and show times (it’s only in Pittsburgh at SouthSide Works until the 25th of March, so run if you want to see it on the big screen … and I suggest seeing it if you want to acquire some ambition to change your city).

This is one of those projects, if you knew was going on, you would have wanted to volunteer time to help complete it.

-SWB

PS – I truly was the nerdy kid in school … the only difference between me and Carl was that I listened to my parents and went into Information Technology instead of going with what I loved (recording, live sound, photography, and filming).  I still smack my Father upside the head once in a while for guiding me into that decision.

BTW – we STRONGLY (yes, we’re rudely screaming this) suggest further supporting the project by buying the movie DVD … Click Here to do that.

It’s Friday! … Finally

Even if you don’t have a heavy week, sometimes Friday just takes tooooooo long to get there.

It doesn’t matter if you work, don’t work, keep house, hose down pets, etc … weekdays are weekdays even if you are in a coma and sleep through all of them.

Right?

… right.

So we’re in agreement on that one.

Keeping in mind that this weekend is St. Patrick’s Day, so that means extra fun.

We also have the Home and Garden Show.

I know the first thing that comes to mind is the drunks that will out … well, that’s part of it.  But, think further. Since we have the Home and Garden Show going on too, so the festivities really hit once the St Patty’s day crowd finds the Home and Garden Show after the parade.  There’s nothing like watching already tired and weary sales people trying to explain the differences of various garage door openers to drooling, slurring drunk people.

Hmmm …. makes me wonder if they have a dunk tank there.  I believe that alcohol content of about 50% of the attendees on the 13th should make them fairly buoyant (thus making sure they won’t drown and die) … and the thrashing about in water of confused drunk people has always been entertaining (I used to hang out by a lake … so  know this for a fact).

It’s Spring!

Birds are singing.

Snow is melting.

Potholes are blooming.

Green shamrocks are growing in the potholes.

You get the idea … it’s turning Spring in Pittsburgh.

—————

So what other signs of Spring do we have in this wonderful city of ours?

Let’s see:

• The pirates are starting spring training with aspirations to actually become a baseball team again.
• The waters are threatening to crest and carry Pittsburgh’s Primanti sandwiches out to sea.
• The Cultural District smells like a well tuned engine with the performances of Grease (or could that be the oil leaks from the buses?).
• Orange pylons are emerging from winter storage as Pittsburgh’s roadway obstacle courses are set for the Spring and Summer seasons.
• In The Strip, dogs howl as the sweet voices of the Opera blend with the musical tones of the local bird song.
• The aromas from the open doors at Pittsburgh Popcorn enlighten the senses (and unfortunately distract the drivers … that kitty never had a chance).
• Vendors in the strip finally shed their winter garb, thaw out, and begin wakening from hibernation (it was sad how people just stole their stuff when they were sleeping over the winter).
• Oh, and did I mention the potholes?  Well, we’re not going to make fun of the city crew, since this is really going to be a sucky Spring for them … although they fill all probably end up fitter than a fiddle (until St. Patty’s Day … along with everyone else).

-SWB

PS – Yup, Spring is in the air … so is the job market, fuel prices, home values.  Such appropriate crisis’ for the Spring 😉

Strip District Religion

Let’s talk religion.

Nope, don’t worry WORD-FM hasn’t taken over my blog … not yet (the restraints on the doors seem to still be holding).

Well, The Strip District is known (or maybe was) for being the main place for Pittsburgh nightlife.  Conveniently it also has a nice and historic church.  So, think about it … normally the only “religion” going on in the strip late night weekends is people “praying to the porcelain god”, and normally that’s done is a cold club restroom.

Why do that, when you have the comforts of a church (and not to mention God happens to be there … just in case your drinking went WAY to far – which is about the point in life where many finally “get religion” … ie. “Ohhhh Goooooood, I’ll NEVER do this again if you just make the pain stop … I’ll NEVER drink again, I promise …. honest.”)

So, why do that in a cold club rest room, right?  If you think even further, it saves you the heavy embarrassment of your friends remembering you doing the late night porcelain go praying in front of them … because most likely there’s a fat chance their going to be in a church.  There are perks like that to consider when you have religion in the strip district.

Just a thought for the strange.

-SWB

PS – 9pm Friday night to about 1pm Sunday morning is involuntary prayer time in The Strip District.  Since St. Patty’s Day is this weekend, you might want to reserve space.

Time to pack up the outdoor pets … including the kids

Yep, you guessed it by the pic … fall is quite quickly on it’s way. (BTW – isn’t it interesting how simple words like “quite quickly” when put together make you sound like you have some command of the English language??).
It’s time to get the leaf rake out, pull the fish and frogs out of the pond (if you do that), find your kid that fall / winter coat, and go back to supporting your local Starbucks (personally I support local companies like Crazy Mocha in Pittsburgh, but SWB realizes most are weak towards simple advertising tactics and don’t have the strength to support local biz …. but that’s another posting). It’s also time to attempt to locate and sift through years of Christmas decorations (because you probably dumped those decorations on top of your fall decorations and don’t remember which box(s) they are in).

Why to do many look towards the season change?

Simple.

We have something new to complain about …. hence:

^$%&^& heat

$^%#$^ leaves

@#%#$% snow

@#%$@ rain

… see – simple.

People think they look forward to the fall season (or spring, etc) because of things like the beauty of it, cuddles with a loved one, bringing back of childhood memories …. but no – it really is just so we can have something new to complain about, nothing more.

You know those wonderful kids that were playing outside all summer? … they will now be inside all day going “mommy Mommy MOMMYYYYYYY!!!” … or just yelling all the new obscenities they just learned at school, so we can probably at the following to our list of complaints:

%^$%^% kids

And the pets that can’t wait to get outside to do their “thing”,will now want to stay inside where it’s warm and of course, do their thing there – so we can add:

$%^%$^ dogs

#$$##$ cats

#$^%%$ fish

honey, the @%%#^ cat ate that #$%##%$ frog and two of the #$%#% fish, and my Scrooge figurine off of the train set.

So, really, why the picture of the cozy looking bench during fall in the city park?

The reality is … after you’ve made your first batch of Limoncello because you read my last article and all of the inhabitants of your household slowly move back in from the summer months ….. that’s probably where you will end up (with your bottle of Limoncello).

Well, good luck and enjoy the fall season …

… and remember to buy a house with a den that has a lockable door on it next time 🙂

-SWB

PS – That thing with the cat, the frog, and the fish …. yep …. that actually happens in my house.

My Limoncello project, G-20, and the Pittsburgh Pirates

Well, some good news today:

With a slight bit of issue, my Limoncello project worked out well. Unfortunately I used too much water for the simple syrup, so it freezes … but you learn for the next time.

What does this have to do with the G-20?

Absolutely nothing, except I wanted to see if the combination would get me a few international hits … or maybe a few of the visiting leaders that like Limoncello will find my blog and contract me to make it for them.

Anyway, back to some type of blog posting …

Why the cloud pic?

Two reasons:

1. If are dumb enough to quickly drink Limoncello, that’s pretty much where your head ends up for a few hours.
2. If people think the G-20 is going to yield any immediate results, that’s where their heads are too.

Am I against the G-20? No – but I am worried about how our city will be perceived by the important visitors coming to it. Will they see the city as a “war zone” due to all of the barricades, or will they start throwing treats to the residents on the other side of the fence, because the eight foot fencing makes the whole city look like the Pittsburgh Zoo?

My biggest peeve about the G-20?

The protesters, the boarded up buildings, the loss of business to the city during a time of recovery? …. Nope, none of those.

It is … the Pittsburgh Pirates … yup, the Pirates. Why?

Well, when your team basically sucks beyond belief … you don’t take up thousands of desperately needed parking spaces during a major international event for people that REALLY need them. They could have graciously just forfeited the game (because it wouldn’t have hurt their rating anyway – and they have already achieved the embarrassing milestone of the most losing seasons in professional sports history).

This could have easily helped the parking problem, and more importantly freed up necessary space for protesters, maybe easing tensions and avoiding possible issues. Oh, well … as with most decisions concerning the Pittsburgh Pirates – it was a bad one.

-SWB

PS – I noticed so many useless rants about the G-20 that I felt left out and obligated to make up one of my own. Enjoy.

News Sensationalism … again

The anarchists are here!!!

The anarchists are here!!!

Well, it’s actually just a band from Europe that decided to get a better view of the city from an old abandoned school building on Polish Hill. Granted, the decision was after a party held in their honor, so I’m sure the decision making process of the band members was slightly under full capacity.

Even taking that into consideration …

Andrew Stocky of the famed WTAE news, decided they were G-20 anarchists scouting out training sites.  Albeit untrue and fictional, as any professional would do – Andrew held to his story.

Thankfully the City Paper had enough sense to shed a little light on the truth as seen here.  It’s amazing that the free magazine initially seen as a Pittsburgh smut rag, is the one sporting legitimate news, and the professionals are … well … selling out.

Well, keep with the smut rags, and occasionally us bloggers (we may do things to get hits, but we at least hold on to one or two sentences of truth in a posting) … and you may find actual news.

-SWB

PS – Yup, mainstream news makes shows like TMZ seem legit.

Kudos to The City Paper for keeping up good reporting.

SWB Off Hiatus, PittGirl is Back, and all is well in the city ..

We’re back from an unintended hiatus, which included jobs loss, combating flooding from the last potential downpour, and keeping the newest tad-frog alive.

Hopefully that won’t happen again …. the flooding, at least.

Well, if you haven’t heard, The Burgh Blog in some way has been revived via Pittsburgh Magazine.  PittGirl is back. It’s nice to see an established publication like Pittsburgh Magazine acknowledge where the city’s readership is at, along with adding an educational writer to the mix.  Now, if they can just become desperate enough to notice me ……

Anyway, congrats to PittGirl, glad to see you in a new home.

This brings us back to all being well in the city.  The Steelers have the Super Bowl, the Pens brought the cup back home, and the Pirates ….. ok, well let’s skip the negative.

Even with the economy the way it has been, Pittsburgh is already starting it’s recovery without hitting rock bottom like so many other cities.  We can still see a light at the end of the tunnel – although everyone still slows to a crawl before entering (some things are just the way they are even during a bad economy).

-SWB

PS – River rats never leave … we just hunker down a bit.

Review: Pamela’s P&G Diner – Lincoln Diner Millvale

I’m sure you have all heard of Pamela’s Diner or the P&G diner lately due to all the news about the owners cooking for President Obama. Click Here for a Post-Gazette article by Moriah Belingit.

Another thing you may not be familiar with it that Pamela’s has multiple locations. The one heard about is on the news is in Pittsburgh’s Strip District. Some of the others are Millvale, Oakland, etc. Our favorite is Millvale.

Why?

The main thing, actually is the service – you can’t beat it. You don’t wait, there is no attitude. I have never once been at Pamela’s (or otherwise known as the Lincoln Diner) where the service hasn’t gone completely smooth. The food always comes out steaming hot, and not greasy at all by diner standards.

The Lincoln Diner is a little different, in that you also walk into a 50s style Pharmacy. Do you remember walking in and seeing a little candy sections, along with kids toys in the neighborhood pharmacy when you were younger? All of that is a Pamela’s Lincoln Diner. If you want to take a step back in time, go there.

All of the other Pamela’s locations provide great service and food, SWB just finds the Millvale location to be the most unique. BTW … if you are looking for a unique furniture store, Jerry Kitman’s is right next to The Lincoln Diner. There is a great hobby shop across the street for the kids. And, of course, for the vinyl record lover – one block down from The Lincoln Diner is Attic Records.

Pamela’s P&G Lincoln Diner is now listed in SWB Recommends.

If you get a chance, also check out the town of Millvale, PA.

-SWB

PS – Yes, the hotcakes really are to die for – this is the first time we had them, because we ordered everything else but that when we visited 🙂

BTW – Millvale is slightly up from The Strip District on the bike trails, if you don’t want to wait in line fore on the weekends at the Strip District location.